Why wont coralline algae grow in my tank?

[Zeal]

All my corals grow. My SPS have polyp extension. Everything is happy but I just can't seem to get Coralline algae growth.

I tried scraping it off snails, having it seeded from LFS, nothing seems to work.

My alk is 9.0-9.3
Calc is a stead 440-450
Salt is 1.026

I really don't know what else I can do...

 

[MERKEY]

Some snails and asterina stars eat coraline. If you have any rocks that hang over look under them and there might be some

 

[Zeal]

I have some asterina... that I'm slowly pruning...................

 

[flyline]

How long has your tank been running

 

[danoo]

First, be happy that when coralline algae isn't growing it makes cleaning your viewing panes a lot simpler. As a person with a large acrylic tank I would gladly eliminate all the coralline algae from my tank if I could.

Second, I don't think there is any magic formula to it. Anything you would do to grow corraline would just apply to good reefkeeping in general, especially if you are already keeping SPS. Keep everything stable and be patient.

 

[Zeal]

How long has your tank been running

2 years

 

[Zeal]

First, be happy that when coralline algae isn't growing it makes cleaning your viewing panes a lot simpler. As a person with a large acrylic tank I would gladly eliminate all the coralline algae from my tank if I could.

Second, I don't think there is any magic formula to it. Anything you would do to grow corraline would just apply to good reefkeeping in general, especially if you are already keeping SPS. Keep everything stable and be patient.

Yeaaaah, but I want that purple and pink

 

[joseserrano]

Mag is a huge component of coralline. That has to be good and steady

 

[Zeal]

Mag is a huge component of coralline. That has to be good and steady

I dont dose mag, since I do a WC every sunday

 

[joseserrano]

That doesn’t signify it is where it should be. Do you know your level?

 

[robbyg]

I dont dose mag, since I do a WC every sunday

I assume you have tested the levels of Mg and know that the WC is keeping levels within a normal range?

 

[Zeal]

That doesn’t signify it is where it should be. Do you know your level?

I assume you have tested the levels of Mg and know that the WC is keeping levels within a normal range?

I checked last month and all was within range. I’ll test in the morning and post back what I get.

 

[mattzang]

do you have an urchin? i was wondering what i was doing wrong because my growth was poor too, i ended up getting rid of the black longspine urchin i had and the coralline started growing right after.

then i missed urchins and got a baby tuxedo and a halloween. i kinda liked the pinks of the coralline, but i like the urchins more

 

[Zeal]

do you have an urchin? i was wondering what i was doing wrong because my growth was poor too, i ended up getting rid of the black longspine urchin i had and the coralline started growing right after.

then i missed urchins and got a baby tuxedo and a halloween. i kinda liked the pinks of the coralline, but i like the urchins more

Nope I don’t.

 

[Magellan]

Be happy you don’t have a lot of coralline! Huge draw on DKh, and covers up your rock surface, preventing beneficial bacteria from growing there. Not to mention cleaning it off the glass! But if you really want some...get a bottle of Purple Helix and dump it in the tank.

 

[Waters]

I never grew a whole lot of coralline until I increased PAR by adding 4 T5 bulbs. My tank ran for over a year with very little growth (although SPS grew fine). Not sure if it was the spectrum or change in intensity but now it is growing like crazy, within two weeks of adding the hybrid fixture to my LEDs.

 

[Mmun]

Nope I don’t.

Try using purple up

 

[Dennis Cartier]

As others have mentioned, coralline growth depends in a lot of things. Stable magnesium around 1350, not too high nitrate (high levels of nitrate tend to promote faster growing nuisance algae), light in the correct spectrum. As another poster mentioned, the addition of T5's can kick start coralline growth. In my frag tank, I found that adding T5's to my AP700 gave coralline the boost it needed to start to grow. Before the T5's, it would only grow on the front pane as the front pane received about 30 minutes of late afternoon sunlight each day. The coralline would only flourish where the sunlight struck the tank. I also noticed that frags that were in the path of the rays of sunlight, grew faster. That is what prompted me to add T5's to my lights.

As others have mentioned, coralline can be a pain to clean off panes for display tanks. In my case (for a frag tank) I use it as an indicator of an environment conducive to growth for corals.

Dennis

 

[jpas]

Are your SPS encrusting the plugs/base rock?

 

[Chaz D]

I've had the best growth in tanks where I'm not running activated carbon or gfo and feeding iodine rich foods like frozen seafood and nori. Many of these tanks have had nitrates/phosphates through the roof.